Question

What did the Supreme Court decide in the case of regents of the university of California v. bakke 1978?

Answer 1

In Regents of University of California v. Bakke (1978), the Supreme Court ruled that a university's use of racial "quotas" in its admissions process was unconstitutional, but a school's use of "affirmative action" to accept more minority applicants was constitutional in some circumstances.

Answer 2

The Supreme Court upheld the principle of affirmative action, but ruled that the use of racial quotas was not permissible.

Details:

The Supreme Court's decision gave some credence to Allan Bakke's claim that the University of California at Davis had practiced some amount of reverse discrimination in denying him admittance to the medical school because he was not an economically or educationally disadvantaged member of one of four racial/ethnic groups eligible for their special admission program. But the Court was careful to note that race could be considered as a factor (among many factors) in college admissions, if schools practiced great care in doing so. Having a basic quota system, such as UC Davis reserving 16 spots out of 100 each year, was considered discriminatory.

The essence of the decision in Regents of the University of California v. Bakke was that the Court upheld affirmative action. It allowed race to be considered as one of several factors in college admission policy. But establishing specific racial quotas was an approach that the Court said was not allowable.